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Phone Me Maybe: Language Change Right Against Our Ears Posted by on Oct 28, 2015 in Archived Posts

Here’s a language question for you to ponder, the next time you’re waiting for enough bars to make a call: Have you ever, at any time, referred to your cell phone as a “telephone”? I don’t think I ever have. In fact, it would actually sound weird to me if someone were to do so……

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Those Three Little Words Posted by on Oct 5, 2015 in Archived Posts

In my job, I proofread a lot of documents. Long ones, short ones, formal, casual, you name it… and to add a twist, a fair number of them are written by non-native English speakers. Even when I haven’t been told the author’s identity, I’ve gotten quite adept at spotting those pieces, and it’s given me…

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I Bet You a Kangaroo… Posted by on Sep 30, 2015 in Archived Posts

A while ago at work, someone described a particularly obscure piece of trivia as “That’s about as useful as knowing the Norwegian word for ‘kangaroo’!” (I love working with language people.) We all laughed, but after I thought for a minute, I said, “I bet I can guess the Norwegian word for ‘kangaroo’… maybe not…

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An American in Iceland: the Benefits of Learning the Language Before a Vacation Posted by on Sep 3, 2014 in Archived Posts

Starting in late fall of last year, I found myself planning for a summer trip to Iceland, a place I’d wanted to visit for a very long time. Shortly after the tickets were booked and the dates circled on the calendar, it suddenly hit me that this little island in the middle of the Atlantic…

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